1. The Field of the Invention
The invention is generally directed to measuring surface characteristics. More particularly, the invention is directed to measuring electron tunneling events and surface potentials of dielectric materials to characterize electronic states and/or defects with high spatial and/or energy resolution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Material science is directed towards the study of materials used in manufacturing various devices. One area of materials science is directed to characterizing surfaces of materials. In particular, it is often useful to be able to characterize surfaces of materials at an atomic level. For example, in the semiconductor device context, the ability to continue to scale semiconductor devices (implement more semiconductor devices in smaller amounts of space) requires that electronic defects in dielectric materials used in fabricating the semiconductor devices be understood. For example, silicon dioxide is a common dielectric material used in silicon semiconductor manufacturing. Due to impurities and other defects, the silicon dioxide may develop electron traps within the silicon dioxide. The electron traps result in loss of performance of semiconductor devices. The accumulation of these types of defects can limit the scalability of semiconductor devices. Presently, no atomic scale method exists for measuring the atomic scale location of the electronic defects in completely insulating materials.
Another material that is presently of interest is hafnium oxide. The use of hafnium oxide may help to further facilitate semiconductor scalability. However, hafnium oxide films may include significant defects which should be detected and understood.
It is also useful to understand other surfaces which are non-conducting or structures on non conducting surfaces. For example, it may be useful to study molecules on non-conducting surfaces or conducting structures on non-conducting surfaces.
It may also be useful to understand surface potentials on dielectric and non-conducting surfaces that may be associated which charge on the surface.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.